Silence
by 263Adder
Summary: When Ward had told her that all agents had a defining moment Skye would never have imagined that this would be hers. When she'd gotten shot it had changed her. Made her more dedicated. She thought that had been her defining moment. Until it really happened. Previously published on AO3.
1. Chapter 1

_When Ward had told her that all agents had a defining moment Skye would never have imagined that this would be hers. _

_When she'd gotten shot it had changed her. Made her more dedicated. She thought that had been her defining moment. Until it really happened. _

"Sir she was meant to make contact two hours ago." Simmons insisted.

"We were just thinking that it couldn't hurt to activate her tracker and make sure she's alright." Fitz added.

Coulson sighed and looked up from the papers on his desk to meet their troubled faces. "She checked in when she got on the plane, it's probably just been delayed, reports show bad weather in the area. I'm sure she'll call any moment now". They didn't exactly look reassured. "Look, if she doesn't make contact in the next hour then you can look, but in the meantime this is meant to be her op. How do you think Skye will feel if she finds out we've been checking up on her?"

He saw Fitzsimmons nod in quiet agreement and leave the office. He knew they'd be counting down the minutes until they could check. So would he. He hated to admit it but ever since she'd been shot he'd been uncomfortable letting her go anywhere by herself. But this mission had come from the top and Agent Hill had asked for Skye personally. Coulson wasn't even allowed to tell the rest of the team what the mission was for, something which made them even more apprehensive. It was only another fifteen minutes after Fitzsimmons left that Ward came it.

"Agent Coulson…"

"We'll wait another forty-five minutes Ward. I've already told Fitz and Simmons."

"I know it's just I think it would be wise…"

"Forty-five minutes. Dismissed."

He looked up when Ward was still stood there, a silent argument playing out on his face. Eventually he said "Yes Sir" and he left the room.

With fifteen minutes left Coulson walked up to the cockpit to stretch his legs and joined May at the helm. She was flying manually which was the only sign that she was in any way concerned about their rookie.

Even though he stayed silent – he'd had one too many glares from talking in the cockpit to do otherwise – May must have picked up on the tension.

"Skye's with six other agents four of whom have field training".

"Right."

"Phil, why don't you just check? It's nearly been three hours. She'll understand."

Silently he stood up and walked into the lounge with May shortly following him. When Fitz saw Coulson standing there he automatically turned on the tracker.

"Well?"

"Give it a second sir." Fitz said his eyes glued to the tablet. After what felt like a painfully long second Coulson watched as Fitz wacked the side of the screen.

"What's wrong?" Ward said standing up as if he could do something.

"I'm not getting a signal of Skye's tracker."

"Check the plane's signal." Simmons suggested.

"I'm not getting anything. Hang on let me try the main computer."

They all rushed down to the lab.

Skye squinted into the bright light and tried to take in her surroundings.

She was still sat in her plane seat, strapped in. However she was alone and when she looked out of her window she couldn't see blue. There was a breeze tickling the side of her neck. The left side of the plane was gone. All she could see were trees.

Trying to sit up straighter she felt a shot of pain in her shoulder which made her gasp. Given the bulge it looked dislocated. With a shaky breath she figured that after her plane had fallen out of the sky she should probably consider herself lucky it wasn't worse.

Removing the seatbelt with her right hand Skye cautiously stood up and looked over the rest of her body. She had plenty of scrapes and cuts but nothing seemed broken and apart from her shoulder she couldn't feel pain anywhere else.

Turning to face the back of the plane were most of the other agents had been sat she failed to stifle a scream as she found the back of the plane to be missing and the body of the only other female agent who'd been on the plane impaled on a branch.


	2. Chapter 2

"What did air control say?"

"They last heard from them an hour after they were supposed to land. Apparently a thunder storm had forced them to detour. They lost signal hour an half later."

Round about the time Coulson was insisting Skye was fine then.

"Okay, Fitz Simmons try and layout the new route they were on so we can figure out where to start search and rescue. May liaison with air control on this. Once Fitz and Simmons have figured out where we're going get us there. Ward call HQ and get the personal numbers of everyone onboard that plane and call them all, they might still have signal."

After a murmur of agreement everyone raced out of the lab to get on with their respective tasks while Coulson half ran to his office to start calling in favours.

"Okay Skye, okay stay cool. Remember what your S.O. says – you need to stay calm in the face of adversity." What she wouldn't do to have Ward here. He'd probably already have a plan to get them out of here. At least he'd taught her a few survival training techniques. Namely how to make a fire and how to operate a flare gun which Skye hoped would be onboard the plane.

Thankfully she actually did know how to relocate her shoulder. And A.C. said she was wasting her time watching episodes of ER and Grey's Anatomy in her spare time. She'd also once watched an old roommate relocate her own so cautiously Skye recreated the arm movements she'd seem her do and as she reached her arms above her with a scream felt her arm click back in place. Unfortunately it didn't alleviate the pain as much as she thought it would and wasn't entirely sure just how successfully it had been reset but was not exactly in the mood to start prodding her shoulder to find out.

Before she made her way out of the plane to try and find anyone who might have survived the fall out the back and side she decided to go into the cockpit and see if the pilot had fared better than Agent Donovan. It looked like all the damage was confined to the back of the plane and partially on the left side. The front of the plane looked intact.

With a bit of force she was able to get the door open and was greeted by the pilot face down on the control panel with blood trickling down his face.

Hesitantly – really not wanting to touch a corpse – but desperately hoping he was just unconscious Skye laid her hand on his shoulder and pulled him back. He was warm and only had one gash on his forehead. She remembered May saying that head injuries give off a lot of blood even if they're not deep so Skye hopes it's not too serious.

Pressing her hand to his chest she can just make out a heartbeat and when she places her hand to his face can feel his soft breath on her palm.

Letting out a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding Skye started moving around the cabin trying to find anything of use, especially something to communicate with. The walkie talkie thing on the dash was dead and she had no luck finding another type of phone. However there was a bag which had both a flare gun and medical supplies including painkillers which she gratefully took. There were also a few bottles of water and some snack bars in the pilot's bag.

Taking a bandage Skye tried to tend to the pilot the best she could. While she wasn't as squeamish as Fitz when it came to blood she still found the whole thing very gross. At least when she watched hospital dramas she could cover her eyes or tell herself they were just using ketchup.

With a reassuring pat on his shoulder and leaving behind one bottle of water just in case he woke up while she was gone Skye hitched the bag of supplies onto her shoulder and headed out to see if she could find anyone else.

Coulson grabbed the edge of the table as the plane abruptly turned. Fitzsimmons had determined the flight path the small plane had taken and placed it over a forest in the North West. When they started muttering some scientific mumbo jumbo he'd just tasked them with preparing the lab in case they had to deal with any wounded before going off to see if Ward had made any progress.

"Well?"

"The only phone I could connect to was Agent Keyssar's but he's not picking up".

"He could be incapacitated."

"Or dead." It was hard to ignore the threatening note in Ward's voice. Coulson wasn't blind. He knew how deeply Ward had become attached to Skye. He tried to hide it as he pushed her harder and harder in training, but when she'd been shot even Ward couldn't hide the fear.

"I've been listening to the last recordings from the plane. There was nothing to indicate they were experiencing technical difficulties or that there was a hijacker on board. May ran background checks on the other agents and the pilot, they all seem clean."

"Maybe the pilot changed the route to that place on purpose – maybe there was an ambush. The plane could have been fired on."

"Perhaps. I guess we won't know until we get there. May said we should get there in half an hour. Keep trying Keyssar's phone – maybe someone will hear it and answer. Then we might be able to get some answers instead of second guessing ourselves."

"Yes sir." Ward still sounded furious.

Skye leaned against a tree and cradled her left arm to her chest. Though the painkillers had eased some of the pain it just managed to make her realise how much the other cuts on her body stung. She'd only been walking for ten minutes and was already exhausted, her adrenaline was wearing off.

Just when she was about to lower herself to the floor to catch her breath for a few moments she spotted something white out the corner of her eye and also heard a slight clanking sound.

Keeping a tight grasp on her arm she slowly walked forward trying to brace herself for whatever she might find.


	3. Chapter 3

It was steadily getting darker outside the plane as they closed in on the area. While for the normal search and rescue planes this would be problematic Fitz had installed heat sensor and infrared cameras which the team, with the exception of May, were all now carefully monitoring for any sign of the plane and survivors.

May's voice came in over the comm. "We're over the site where the last coordinates originated. Continuing along the predicted flight path."

If possible the tension in the room doubled. With every minute that went by and no life signals were spotted their hopes of finding Skye how they wanted to find her seemed to dwindle.

It wasn't until they reached the airport that Skye should have arrived at six hours ago that Simmons started to cry.

Skye woke up to everything on its side. It took a moment for her to process that she was the one who was sideward not the plane.

It took another moment to remember how she got on the ground.

She'd fainted.

She'd found the back of the plane.

She'd found the bodies. She'd seen the blood.

As the ringing in her ears faded the clanking sound came again from the other side of the plane.

Skye slowly sat up, carefully averting her gaze, and looking everywhere else for the source of the sound.

"Hello?" She said cautiously. It was probably just a bit of debris. Skye had given up on finding anyone else alive out here.

The clanking stopped and then started again. Three sharp taps followed by three slow taps repeated over and over.

Following the noise Skye circled to the other side of the plane. So bit back a groan as she saw an arm sticking out. An arm that was holding a seat buckle and was beating the side of the plane with it.

"Do you want me to go back along a slightly different route or are we waiting until morning?" May said over the comm.

"I'll rerun the algorithms."

"It's getting darker we don't have time for that." Ward snapped back at Fitz who cowered slightly under the agents glare.

Simmons sniffled in the corner.

"Ward." Coulson said loudly. "I want you to get off the plane and find the people who worked on Skye's plane before it set off. See if they may have done something to tamper with it. May will get off with you to go to the nearest S.H.I.E.L.D base and see if she can uncover more about the other agents on that plane. You can ask around the airport about the pilot too. See if he has any connections with anyone who'd want to sabotage this mission."

"How am I supposed to do that when I don't even know what the mission was for?" He replied curtly.

May walked into the room.

"Skye was accompanying a Level 8 mission ops who were trying to find out information about a new terrorist cell in the region. Skye was tasked with hacking into their systems to find out their banking information so S.H.I.E.L.D could identify who they were working with and selling to."

"Was the mission successful?" May asked.

"We don't know. Skye was meant to transfer all the data she collected onto an encrypted hard drive which she was going to give to a S.H.I.E.L.D team waiting to meet her at the airport. Obviously she never did."

"So maybe someone targeted the plane to stop Skye from delivering that information." Ward asked.

May shrugged. "Or for all we know they could have been trying to target any one of the other agents on that plane. Who knows what other missions they've been involved in which might have put a target on their heads."

"And of course it could have just been a simple engineering malfunction." Simmons said somewhat hopefully. The idea that her friend could not only be stranded in the middle of nowhere but also with someone out trying to kill her was too much to handle. Still it was a slightly easier image to deal with than the alternative.

Fitz kindly wrapped an arm around her shoulder almost like he was trying to shield her from the cynical faces surrounding her.

"Fitz I've set up a meeting for you and Simmons with some people I know. Now they're not as good as hacking as Skye but I want you to work with them and see what they can do to get though to Keyssar's phone. I know Skye's managed to turn on the audio remotely from people's cell phones before. Even if it's a long shot if it works it might help us make contact or at least try and establish where the plane landed."

Peering into a dark corner Skye stifled a gasp as she saw the upper torso of a man who dropped the seat belt buckle at the sight of her.

"Thank god" he groaned. "I thought I was the only one. Alive. Have you found. Anyone else?"

After a second of allowing her brain to swim in the horror flooding through her at the sight of what she could only imagine were some very horrendous wounds Skye managed to respond in a voice which sounded scarily like May. "Pilot's alive. One person unaccounted for. The rest are dead."

"Do you know. Who's still. Missing?"

She quickly flipped through the images of bodies branded in her mind. Donovan, Peukert, Keyssar and Moore. "Agent Robeson."

The man who Skye recognised as Agent Scott nodded. "He's a technician. His first field op." He coughed heavily into his palm. "You're Skye right? The hacker?"

"Yeah."

"I'm Jason."

"Okay. Well I dropped a bag of supplies just round the corner just let me go grab it and we'll see if I can make you more comfortable."

"Okay." Jason panted through shallow breaths.

"I'll be right back Agent Scott." Skye promised.

"Jason… I'm dying. You can call me Jason."

Skye gave him a watery smile before walking around the corner of the plane. Placing her back to the wreckage and therefore the bodies she sat on the ground, wrapped her arms around her legs and quietly began to cry.


	4. Chapter 4

"And the agents' names were?" The blond woman in administrations asked Agent May.

Through a sharp breath she listed the agents. "Sarah Donovan, Stephen Keyssar, Alexander Moore, Lewis Peukert, Paul Robeson and Jason Scott. There is also the pilot Andrew Bayer."

"I'll be just a moment. Please take a seat."

With a roll of her eyes May took a seat next to the desk while the woman went to get the respective files. No matter where you go it seems you can never escape the red tape.

After a few moments she strutted back in, her heels clicking on the floor. "Alright Agent May I have files on everyone except Andrew Bayer. He wasn't a member of SHIELD."

"But we ran background checks on him before we cleared him to fly the plane right?"

"If we did I don't have the files on that."

May half snatched the files out of the woman's hands and murmured a quick "Thank you" before dashing out the door.

"What do you mean you never heard of him?" Ward said through clenched teeth resisting the urge to smash the flight controllers head into a wall.

"I've never heard of anyone called Andrew Bayer. I have no one of that name registered with any of our airlines or who owns a private plane and flies from here."

"You're sure?"

"Yes I'm positive." The balding man insisted. "Listen what is this even about?"

Before he could even finish his question Ward had left the room.

"We have a lead." Ward said as he walked into the lab were the other three were stood. May wasn't there. "The pilot Andrew Bayer isn't registered at the airport. Apparently they've never even heard of him."

"Maybe he'd never flown into the place before."

"But he's not listed as the pilot who was meant to be flying the plane."

"Who was?"

"Alexander Moore."

"But Moore was definitely on the plane. If he was meant to be flying why would he let Bayer on board."

"Maybe they were working together?" Ward suggested.

"I checked at the base. There's no record of Andrew Bayer." May announced from behind them. "Here's Moore's file." Evidently she'd heard their conversation.

"Okay, Ward go through the file with May along with all the other agents on that plane. See if any of the others had connections with Moore. I'll see if I can dig up anything on Bayer, maybe facial recognition might get us somewhere. We need to work quick, looks like being stranded isn't Skye's only problem".


	5. Chapter 5

Skye counted to twenty Mississippi before wiping her eyes and taking the bag back to Jason.

"Hey, sorry I took a while. Must have misplaced it."

"Don't worry about it. Not going. Anywhere."

His brave face made Skye feel guilty for her little breakdown. From now on she needed to compartmentalise her panic if she was going to get out of here. Like Ward would do. If he ever actually felt panic. Who knew what went on inside her robot's head?

Rain clouds were already drawing in and it would be night soon. She still hadn't found Robeson. He'd been sat in front of the dead agents so he might have survived, although given he hadn't actually found her by this point the prospect of that didn't look too good.

"Well I have some water and more importantly I have some morphine so you really hit the jackpot."

She looked down at his silent and suddenly stony face.

"I'm dying."

"Shut up, no you're not." Skye said instinctively, not wanting to lose the one person she had to talk to out here. Who knew when the pilot would wake up, if ever? And wild wolves were probably eating poor Paul right now.

"Yes. I am." Scott said, amazingly smiling up at her. "My legs. And hips. Are crushed. My other arm's gone. I can barely breathe. I'm coughing up blood. So I definitely have. Internal injuries. Even if rescue team get here. I wouldn't survive. A trip to the. Hospital. As soon as they'd get. That plane off me. I'd die anyway. From blood loss."

"They'll be here soon." Skye wasn't even sure if she believed that anymore. Everything seemed too horrible for her to have that kind of hope anymore. "Don't give up."

"I'm sorry. Skye. I don't want you to be alone. But I'm no help to you anyway. You can't stay here. You've got to find Paul. Promise me. I feel bad. Made him come. He hates field work. Please."

"I'll find Paul." She said immediately.

"I'm sorry. Know you're new agent. You must be scared. But. You can do this. Trust yourself. Trust your training. S.H.I.E.L.D doesn't pick anybody."

She scoffed. "I wasn't picked. I hacked my way in."

"Hey. I saw you on this mission. You were. _Amazing_. Never seen anyone. Like it. Paul was following you. Like a groupie. Never seen him so impressed."

"You sound like my S.O."

"Wise guy then." Scott coughed into his hand and this time she saw the blood that he'd covered up before.

She pulled out a bottle of water and lifted his head up so he could take a small sip. Even that made him cough.

"Is there anything I can do?" Skye asked quietly.

He smiled a little. "No. Thank you. Really."

Without thinking she grabbed his hand.

"I'll stay with you."

"You don't have to."

"No one should die alone." She replied eventually. "I'll stay."


	6. Chapter 6

"I found a match on the picture. Bayer's real name is Robert Clark. He's shown to have affiliations with the terrorist cell Skye was looking into."

"It says here Moore was once under investigation but charges were dropped." May added. She wasn't sure if Ward was paying attention he had a faraway look in his eyes.

"Does it say what he was suspected of?" Coulson asked.

"Leaking S.H.I.E.L.D documents. He passed a lie detector test and there was never any evidence found to prove anything against him."

"This is fine _sir_ but it doesn't help us find that plane. Every minute they're out there they're in more danger. Especially if either Moore or Clark are running around. Who knows what lengths they might go to to secure that hard drive." Ward finally said.

"Fitz and Simmons are doing everything they can to find that plane. Also ground control says there will be clear weather tomorrow meaning a full search and rescue mission can take place and we can cover the full scope of the forest. In the meantime we just have to trust that you've trained Skye well enough to manage out there."

"She knows the basics." Ward replied tersely.

"Let's hope that's enough."

They were only waiting half an hour when the ramp lowered and Fitz came running into the lab with Simmons half a step behind him.

"The techs were able to give us this. It should let us audibly activate Keyssar's phone."

Simmons started throwing the appropriate wires at Fitz who hastily installed the device to a monitor and turned it on.

"Now the device should allow us to turn the phone on and get a signal on where the phone is but also it will make the phone emit a loud sound. Hopefully someone will hear it and pick up."

There was a silent thought that went around the room. 'If anyone is alive to hear it.'

Skye ran a hand over Jason's face closing his eyes. With a sob she stood up and grabbed the bag preparing to go back to the cockpit to check on the pilot before going to look for Paul.

A loud siren sounded and she dove behind a bush and clutched the gun she'd taken at Jason's insistence to her chest. The safety was still on. Cautiously she pressed the button and breathed a sigh of relief when the magazine didn't slide out.

The siren went off again and seemed to echo around her. Hesitantly Skye peeked over the bush and seeing no one around her got up and cautiously walked back to the tail section of the plane.

It was coming from inside.

She tried to stick her head into the space but the sight made her automatically jump back.

The noise reverberated around her again and she could see a small light coming from within the pile of bodies.

It wasn't pretty. Two of them were still fastened in their seats. The other two had obviously been ripped out and had been smashed into the sides of the plane. Interspersed with the branches that were poking in through the windows and the whole thing looked like something from a disaster movie.

With a sigh Skye realised this pretty much was a disaster movie. Or a horror story she thought as she was forced to confront the darkness growing around her and the rumbling of the sky up above.

Holding her breath she stepped into the plane again and held back the tears that threatened her as she was forced to put her hand into a dead man's pockets. After a moment she held a phone in her blood stained fingers and quickly moved back outside the plane where rain drops were now falling.

With shaking fingers she tapped the answer button on the screen.

"Hello?" Her voice sounded rough to her own ears.


	7. Chapter 7

"Skye." Fitz cried in relief. "Thank god. Where are you?"

"A forest." Her voice sounded cold and distant.

"Skye" Coulson began. "Are there any injured?"

"The pilot."

They all shared a look.

"Is he conscious?"

"Not the last time I checked."

"Skye what about you. Are you hurt?" Simmons interjected.

"No."

Ward allowed himself to breathe a sigh of relief.

"Are you with the other agents?" Coulson asked.

"No. The others are dead."

"All of them?"

"I haven't found Robeson yet."

"Skye listen. The pilot may have sabotaged the plane on purpose. He's working with the cell you were investigating. He may try to get the hard drive. Do you still have it?"

"Yes."

"Skye." Ward began. "Have you found supplies?"

"Some food, water. Flares."

"Was the pilot armed?"

"I'm not sure."

"You need to be alert. He may try to come after you." Ward said slowly. "Now it's getting dark. Do you have shelter."

There was a pause on the line.

"Skye?" Simmons called.

"I can go back to the plane. Where I was sat was pretty undamaged."

"If the pilot is still unconscious restrain him. Are you armed?"

"Scott gave me his gun."

"You talked to Agent Scott?" Coulson asked. "I thought you said there were no other survivors."

"I did."

Her meaning sunk in.

May broke the brief silence. "Okay. Now we have got a signal on where you are but there's some bad weather rolling into your area. We won't be able to land in it."

She stayed silent.

"Skye." Ward said. "Get to your shelter and be alert for the pilot. You've been trained for this."

"I can't go back."

"What?"

"I promised Agent Scott I'd look for Robeson."

"No Skye listen. Now we know where you are we can look for Robeson when we arrive. But you can't go wondering about, not with this storm coming. You need to go to your shelter."

"I promised."

"Skye, _no_, this is an _order_." Coulson interjected. "Go back to the plane."

"I'll call you back in the morning." She replied and hung up.

"Skye?" Simmons still said anyway.


	8. Chapter 8

Pocketing the phone Skye pulled the bag up her shoulder and headed out into the rain which was steadily getting heavier. She would need to try and preserve the battery.

If she went in the same direction as she walked before to get to the tail section in theory she would be under the flight path and might find Paul.

In theory.

Sparingly she would call out his name in the hopes that he might be able to hear her and know that someone was looking for him. Despite her attempts at being hopeful she also kept an eye out for any blood and any body parts.

The room was filled with a stung silence that came from Skye hanging up.

Eventually Coulson spoke. "Alright everyone, we're going to have a busy day tomorrow so why don't we try and get some rest?"

Slowly Fitz guided Simmons out of the room and back towards her bunk. Ward on the other hand refused to move an inch and May stayed by Coulson's side.

"We need to go there now."

"Agent Ward." Coulson sighed. "This is going to be a complex operation. We need to recover pieces from the plane to establish what happened and will be dealing with dead bodies. It's not exactly something we can do at night. It's already going to be complicated trying to land in a forest."

"I'm not talking about the recovery aspects of this mission." He said through gritted teeth. "Skye's stuck out there with a terrorist and potential murderer."

"And what do you propose Agent Ward?"

"Fly us over the area where we got the phone signal. I can parachute out and make contact with Skye and deal with Clark."

Coulson deliberated for a moment and Ward watched as he seemed to have a silent conversation with May.

"Alright. But take supplies with you, who knows how long it'll take us to get to you in the morning."

"Paul!" Skye shouted despite the sharp pain that went down her throat every time she tried to speak. "Paul!"

Her footsteps made loud crunching noises as she made her way over a dried up stream.

"Paul."

Snap.

"Paul?" Skye said and carefully made her way towards the noise.

A scream answered her.

"Paul!" She ran towards his voice and found him slumped against a tree clutching his leg.

He looked up at her approach.

She threw the bag down next to him and crouched down. "Paul – how bad are you hurt?"

"My leg. It's broken. I managed to reset it. I took a emergency aid course before I came out here…and my friends said I was overreacting."

Carefully she drew back the tear in his jeans and got out the antiseptic to disinfect it.

"I have some bandages here. Do you want me to put them on?"

"Have you got medical training?"

"No."

"I'll do it."

She passed him the supplies and stood up to look around them as she thought she heard something move in the distance.

"Is anyone else alive?"

"The pilot."

"No one else?"

She looked down into his pain worn face. Fear raged in his eyes. Skye remembered how terrified she'd been after Peru.

"No."

He took a shaky breath and looked back at his leg.

"But I've established contact with the rescue team. They're coming for us in the morning when the storm clears. In the meantime we need to find shelter. Can you walk?"

"I can hop."

"Here, let me help you."

She tried to offer him her left arm but gasped at the extra pressure.

"Are you hurt?" Paul asked as he sunk back down to the ground.

"Shoulder."

"Let me look."

She sat next to him and allowed him to examine her.

"The muscle is swollen I think I saw an anti-inflammatory in here."

"I guess I'm lucky I found someone with medical training."

"Guess I'm lucky I found someone with field experience."

Skye sighed as she thought about the potential terrorist waiting back at the site for her. At least Jason had insisted on her taking his gun before he died. A S.H.I.E.L.D agent should always be prepared he'd argued.

"Did that hurt?" Paul said, mistaking her grim expression.

"No – but we really should be heading back. Here."

This time she offered him her right arm and let him lean on her. Thankfully he was a small type, not unlike Fitz.

"We need to make our way back as quietly as possible alright." She tried to say in as calming a voice as possible.

"Why?"

"Well we're still not sure how the plane came down. There might be hostiles in the area. We've probably already drawn attention to ourselves with all the noise. Hopefully the storm will stop anyone coming after us."

She felt Paul stiffen beside her.

"Hey don't worry." She gave his waist a little squeeze. "Like you said, at least I have experience in field ops."

They trudged for a while through the forest, the torrents of rain making it near impossible to tell if anyone was near them.

Skye decided on a slight detour to take them around the tail of the plane. Paul would probably be traumatised enough when he'd have to sleep near Agent Donovan's body.

Stopping twice they were both drenched by the time they reached the front of the plane. Using her body to shield Paul from the initial sight of Donovan she placed him in the front seat which was sheltered on three sides.

"Don't look behind you. Listen out for anything. I'm going to go in the cockpit and check on the pilot. Don't move."

After the day she was having it was almost no surprise when she opened the door and found the pilot gone.


	9. Chapter 9

"You ready Ward?" Coulson asked from the opposite side of the room.

Ward gave a thumbs up and, checking his straps one last time, waited for the signal to go.

"We're approaching the site now." May said. "Good luck."

He dove out of the open door.

The rain was coming down hard but thankfully the wind wasn't too strong.

He touched down not far from where Skye's last coordinates had come from. Ward quickly lost the parachute and drew his gun before heading to the site.

He found what looked like the tail section of the plane at an angle. Quickly clearing the inside he found no survivors and proceeded to where satellite images Fitz had just sent him showed where the front section of the plane sat.

"Put your hands were I can see them." A gruff voice sounded from behind her.

Raising both her hands she slowly turned around to see the pilot holding a gun to the side of Paul's head.

Deciding it was safer to play ignorance Skye let a bewildered expression out across her face. "What's happening?"

"Don't play dumb. I know you're both S.H.I.E.L.D agents."

"No, no we're just technicians I swear." She answered in a panicked voice.

"You were the ones who hacked into our servers?" It was more a rhetorical statement than a question.

"Yes but I _swear_. We were just doing what they told us to. We didn't even have the clearance to know what the mission was for."

"And you have the information on you?"

She shook her head despite it being safely tucked in her bra. "No. Agent Scott kept the hard drive on him. He said it was important to keep it safe."

Paul shot her a look and Skye hoped he would catch on quickly and not blow her story.

"I bet he did." The man answered. "Where is he?"

"He was in the tail section of the plane with us. He sent us back here to get supplies while he tended to some of the wounded."

"Okay well why don't we go pay him a little visit." The pilot slipped an arm under Paul's elbow and roughly pulled him to his feet eliciting a squeak of pain from him as he was forced to put pressure on his leg.

The rain was still coming down in sheets outside the plane making Skye cold to the bone. She could only imagine how Paul felt as the pilot half dragged him along in front of them while keeping the gun pressed to the side of his head.

She could feel the metal of Scott's gun pressed against her hip. She just needed Paul to move a little to the left so she could get a clear shot and pray that her target practice had paid off.

He moved.

Ward hung close to the trees and followed the coordinates. He was close now.

Suddenly a shot rang out. Any instinct he had to take cover was overridden by the need to find Skye. She'd already been shot once under his care.

As he rounded the corner a man collided with him and would have fallen had Ward not caught him. He recognised the panting man as Paul Robeson.

"Agent Robeson – where's Skye? Who fired?"

He looked down into Robeson's pain stricken face and followed his stare.

Skye stood in the clearing her gun still pointing at the man she'd just killed.

**I HAVE WRITTEN A SEQUEL TO THIS WHICH IS CALLED SILENCE PART II WHICH IS ALSO FOLLOWED BY ANOTHER STORY CALLED ADRIFT WHICH IS STILL IN PROGRESS. THIS WHOLE STORY HAS ALREADY BEEN PUBLISHED ON ARCHIVE OF OUR OWN WHICH WHILE I GET LESS VIEWS I DO THINK IS A BETTER FORMAT TO FANFICTION. THANK YOU FOR READING AND LEAVING REVIEWS!**


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